Thread: First Party... Advice?

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We decided to have our first party this year and could use a little advice on food and stuff. Fun food names and recipes. I'm sending out 100 invitations so I need to feed a crowd. We are planning on having a band. I'm doing a costume contest and was thinking about doing ballot boxes so everyone could vote any other ideas or advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance

Really cool idea with the ballot box. Are you planning on a theme?

Ballot box for a lot of people is hard - I did that a few years ago. You need to assign someone the job of tallying the votes and check the box for more ballots as they come in. With a big group, it can take time if that person waits until all ballots are in. You may want to consider doing the applause meter type of voting for a big group.

^ This is true, lol.

Thanks for the input

You're welcome =)

Regarding food, I've found that people prefer finger foods, stuff that they can pick up easily rather than actual dishes like chili and pasta. So things like pigs in a blanket, taquitos, eggrolls, veggie trays, fruit trays, chips and salsa do well. Pizza does very well too - you can have the pizzeria cut the slices into half slices to serve more.

I'm glad you asked about the costume contest. This is the first year I'm doing a costume contest and I was going to do ballot boxes but now I think I'll just go with applause-o-meter.

Being that it's your first Halloween party.... keep things simple.
Those mini Halloween recipe books found near checkouts are great for suggestions.
We have a large group every year too but, we have a potluck supper. We'll provide some finger foods, drinks, sandwiches, & cookies. I always have a list of suggestions ready for people who can't think what to bring. Don't want 20 people bringing bags of chips.

Spider web mirrors, hang webs from chandeliers, etc. Change out light bulbs for a colored bulb or blacklight. Attach flasher plugs into table or floor lighting plugs. Flicker flame bulbs look great in chandeliers! Don't forget to play some creepy music (Midnight Syndicate & Nox Arcana) & sound effects (bugs, cats, etc.) throughout the house.

I agree on reconsidering the ballot box thing. We did that our first year and 1) it was hard to read some people's handwriting and 2) it took FOREVER to count up all the votes. I read a suggestion on here about picking three or four people to be the "judges" (maybe the ones that didn't come in costume) and doing a runway type thing where the ones that want to enter can showcase their costumes and the judges vote. We might do some version of that this year. Still thinking on that though. It's a requirement to come in costume so most people usually do. I might just have my friend, husband and I be the judges and see how that goes.

As far as food goes, I agree with most everyone on doing finger foods. I found that those usually run out faster than the bigger "main meal" type dishes I serve. Mostly because no one really eats until after they have had a few drinks in them then they stand around the table picking at everything.

Pigs in a blanket go the quickest, with my tortilla roll up things being a very close second (just a jalapeno cheese spread in a tomato basil tortilla).

this isn't very "Halloweeny" but it was what put our party over the edge for our guests.. We had pre barbequed a ton of burgers and hotdogs and brought them out at about 1 a.m. They loved all of our Halloween food, and the games and costumes, but after a night of partying, those burgers went over huge.